Activision Blizzard Q2 Earnings Call What we learned!

[Durandro]

Don't forget -50% character service promotion. And now they are working on cash-shop features, to make up for more losses. I doubt it will be efficient way to increase profits from WoW, so we are yet to see some more quite unappealing changes/additions.

Those aren't subscription related. The graph shows an increase in earnings from subscriptions despite lower overall numbers.

What does that mean? That many of the previous subscribers added to the total may have been 'one monthers' - people who only subbed for a single month in that quarter. Thus despite being one of the subscribers, they only contribute a third of revenue compared to a full-time player.

Example (not accurate at all, just to show a point):
1 million people pay for a single month's subs = $10,000,000
0.7 million pay pay for two months' subs = $14,000,000

This shows that the subscribers they have left in the western market are playing more consistantly during each quarter now. Its why the 'quarterly report' method is flawed if you only look at subscriber numbers and not overall revenue. 12 million subscribers only paying for a single month would bring in less revenue then 4.1 million paying for the full three months during a quarter, for example.

[Glorious Leader]

DCUO makes more money on consoles that it does on PC. Planetside 2 and Warframe (not a proper MMO though) are both moving to consoles. Elder Scrolls Online will be released on consoles. Everquest Next has been hinted to be release on consoles by Smedley.

MMO's can work well on consoles, even if it's not the ideal platform.

Maybe that's the future for MMOS then. No matter what it will never go back to being UO or EQ in terms of hardcoreness. Those days are done. I'm thinking the console market is just this huge untapped potential. We'll see I guess. Interesting times ahead.

[Deleted]

Colour me stupid, but what exactly IS Destiny?

Edit: Nevermind, I found some articles about it :P

[Parrin]

Those aren't subscription related. The graph shows an increase in earnings from subscriptions despite lower overall numbers.

What does that mean? That many of the previous subscribers added to the total may have been 'one monthers' - people who only subbed for a single month in that quarter. Thus despite being one of the subscribers, they only contribute a third of revenue compared to a full-time player.

No. It means that they cut costs. Operating costs were $848 million last year. They dropped to $620 million this year. That, and the revenue from mount and pet purchases, is where most of the profit came from.

[Edge-]

Maybe that's the future for MMOS then. No matter what it will never go back to being UO or EQ in terms of hardcoreness. Those days are done. I'm thinking the console market is just this huge untapped potential. We'll see I guess. Interesting times ahead.

If you want that then you're looking at the niche low budget/indie MMO market. A game like Darkfall or Petpetuum, for example. Those more hardcore games don't have the mass marketability of your current generation of MMO's, so there really aren't going to be big budget investments into them (though EQ Next may surprise us).

[Valeron]

What I've learned

Blizzard makes lots of money